3 magnums per lot
Details
LAFLEUR 1988
Vintage note: The first of a trio of very good vintages and the penultimate vintage of a more than interesting decade.......I now think that the '88s, initially somewhat overrated, are now just about coming into their own as serious long-term clarets. Climatically, for this has the greatest influence on quality and quantity, the spring of 1988 was more than unusually wet, necessitation much spraying; the later flowering conditions were uneven. The summer, from July to September, was drier than usual, monthly temperatures being average. The grapes were ripe, thick-skinned, resulting in deep colours and high tannins following a late harvest in satisfactory conditions. My conclusion is that 1988 is a very good vintage and currently undervalued; but in the end, time and tannin will be jostling for supremacy. M.B.
Tasting Note: A strong candidate for the wine of the vintage, Lafleur's 1988 is still extremely youthful, requiring another decade of cellaring. The colour remains a dense opaque plum with no signs of lightening at the edge. The reticent but promising nose of kirsch, minerals, violets, and Asian spices still needs to be coaxed out of the glass. Full-bodied, dense, and concentrated, with exceptional power, layers of highly extracted fruit, and superb purity, as well as mouth searing tannin, this is a wine for the true connoisseur. Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book 3rd Edition (1998)
Château Lafleur--Vintage 1988
Pomerol
3 magnums per lot
Vintage note: The first of a trio of very good vintages and the penultimate vintage of a more than interesting decade.......I now think that the '88s, initially somewhat overrated, are now just about coming into their own as serious long-term clarets. Climatically, for this has the greatest influence on quality and quantity, the spring of 1988 was more than unusually wet, necessitation much spraying; the later flowering conditions were uneven. The summer, from July to September, was drier than usual, monthly temperatures being average. The grapes were ripe, thick-skinned, resulting in deep colours and high tannins following a late harvest in satisfactory conditions. My conclusion is that 1988 is a very good vintage and currently undervalued; but in the end, time and tannin will be jostling for supremacy. M.B.
Tasting Note: A strong candidate for the wine of the vintage, Lafleur's 1988 is still extremely youthful, requiring another decade of cellaring. The colour remains a dense opaque plum with no signs of lightening at the edge. The reticent but promising nose of kirsch, minerals, violets, and Asian spices still needs to be coaxed out of the glass. Full-bodied, dense, and concentrated, with exceptional power, layers of highly extracted fruit, and superb purity, as well as mouth searing tannin, this is a wine for the true connoisseur. Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book 3rd Edition (1998)
Château Lafleur--Vintage 1988
Pomerol
3 magnums per lot
Special notice
Offered duty paid, but available in bond. VAT at 17.5% will be charged on the hammer price on removal of the lot from bond.